Written By doni icha on Selasa, 03 Maret 2015 | 21.16

Some of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's closest former advisers will appear as Crown witnesses in the trial of suspended senator Mike Duffy, CBC News has learned.

And those subpoenaed to testify include several Conservative MPs, according to multiple sources familiar with the Crown's witness list.

Duffy faces 31 charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust at a trial scheduled to begin in five weeks. That trial will almost certainly dominate the federal political agenda in the first half of an election year.

One of the key witnesses at the trial who has been subpoenaed by the Crown prosecutor is the prime minister's former chief of staff Nigel Wright. He now works in London, but has previously been interviewed by the RCMP and handed over hundreds of emails.

The Crown will look to the witnesses to help make its case in relation to $90,000 Duffy accepted from Wright to repay ineligible living and travel expenses and allegations Duffy double-dipped while claiming expenses with the Senate for partisan events.​

Court documents show Wright was consumed with managing the potential political damage of the Duffy expense scandal for weeks in early 2013, and, after trying to convince Duffy to reimburse the Senate for improperly claimed expenses, finally decided to give Duffy $90,000 to repay them.

Wright has maintained that Harper did not know the details of the agreement. In the emails from the RCMP, Wright says, "The PM knows, in broad terms only, that I personally assisted Duffy when I was getting him to agree to repay the expenses."

Emails expected to be key

Other former Prime Minister's Office insiders who have been subpoenaed include David van Hemmen, Wright's former executive assistant, and Benjamin Perrin, who acted as the prime minister's lawyer. Both men no longer work for the PMO.

Emails obtained by the RCMP say Perrin acted as the go-between for the PMO and Duffy's lawyer to try to end the crisis.

Perrin's emails have not been released publicly, but there are questions about one of Wright's emails to him and others during negotiations around Duffy's repayment of the expenses, which at the time were believed to be about $32,000.

According to documents filed in court by the RCMP, Wright at one point suggests he wants to speak to Harper before "everything is considered final," and then later emails, "We are good to go from the PM."

The RCMP's lead investigator, Cpl. Greg Horton, says in the court documents, "I am not aware of any evidence that the prime minister was involved in the repayment or reimbursement of money to Senator Duffy or his lawyer."

MPs called to testify

CBC News has also learned a number of Conservative MPs will be called to testify by the Crown.

Conservative MP Barry Devolin is one of several Conservative MPs who have been subpoenaed to testify at the Duffy trial. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Those MPs will be asked about fundraising by the senator when he was still a hot commodity for the Conservative Party. One of the MPs is Barry Devolin, who is expected to be asked to testify about an event he held in his Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes riding with Duffy.

Duffy regularly travelled across the country to help raise money for the party. The RCMP alleges he filed Senate expense claims while conducting personal or partisan trips.

Sources say MPs who have been subpoenaed have been asked to co-operate fully.

Duffy has maintained his innocence and said repeatedly he is looking forward to a fair trial.

Senators who were part of the audit and report process will be called to testify, including Marjory LeBreton, David Tkachuk and Carolyn Stewart-Olson.

In a statement Monday, a spokesperson for the PMO said," The Prime Minister's Office will continue offering every possible assistance to the RCMP's investigation against Mr. Duffy."

Duffy, 68, was appointed in 2008 as a Conservative senator, representing Prince Edward Island, and began sitting in the Senate in January 2009. He resigned from the Tory caucus on May 16, 2013, and sat as an Independent until his colleagues voted to suspend him without pay for two years on Nov. 5, 2013.

The scene: a stuffy West Block committee room circa June 2008, a day before MPs are expected to hightail it home to their ridings after what had been, even for a minority House, a particularly acrimonious spring sitting.

The issue: An opposition motion to investigate the so-called "in-and-out" controversy over Conservative election-spending during the 2006 campaign. The proposal had arrived at the Commons ethics committee after more than 15 hours at procedure and House affairs, which ultimately shut down for the rest of the session due to an seemingly unstoppable government filibuster.

After nine hours of arguments from the rotating contingent of speakers on the government side of the table in favour of tweaking the motion to cover all parties, committee chair Paul Szabo had, it seemed, heard enough.

Against emphatic objections from Conservatives, he invoked a rarely-enforced rule against repetition and irrelevance to shut down the debate, and called the vote — an unprecedented move one Tory MP could be heard describing as "unbelievable."

Last week, Conservative MPs used their majority to overrule public safety committee chair Daryl Kramp to force an end to a New Democrat-driven filibuster to protest their refusal to increase the number of meetings to hear from witnesses on the anti-terror bill. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

"We should walk out," suggests another Conservative.

"This is an affront to democracy," bellows a third.

But Szabo's ruling — which was upheld with the support of Liberal, Bloc Québécois and New Democrat committee members — stood, and the study went ahead over the summer.

Move to overrule committee chair challenged

Fast forward to last week's standoff at the public safety committee, where the roles have been reversed, and the governing Conservatives now hold the majority.

After eight hours of debate over a proposed timeline for witness testimony on the government's controversial anti-terrorism bill, the Conservatives successfully deploy their superior numbers to force a vote to end the stalemate.

Unlike 2008, however, they had to override the ruling of the chair — their fellow Conservative Daryl Kramp — who reminded his caucus colleagues that such motions were inadmissible.

NDP House Leader Peter Julian has raised a point of order over the Conservative move to overrule public safety committee chair Daryl Kramp in order to call the vote. (Julian Tang/The Canadian Press)

The New Democrats, who had hoped delaying tactics would ultimately get the government to agree to hear from as many witnesses as possible, lost no time lodging an official protest with Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer.

"The Conservative majority on the committee threw out the rule book, threw out a century and a half of traditions that exist in our country and in this Parliament, and took matters into their own hands," NDP House Leader Peter Julian told the House.

"Last night, the majority on the committee simply told the chair that his intention to stick to the rule book was simply not going to be followed by the Conservative majority on the committee," Julian continued.

"They ignored the rules. They ignored the practice. They ignored all the precedents. They ignored the clear direction, and they overturned a procedurally sound ruling by the chair."

'Tyranny of the minority'

Julian pointed to a 2009 ruling by then-speaker Peter Milliken, who cautioned MPs that "committees that overturn procedurally sound decisions by their chairs and choose to submit procedurally unacceptable reports to the House will have them declared null and void."

In response, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan fell back on the argument that committees are, for better or worse, masters of their own destiny.

"What you are being asked to do is to interfere in the affairs of a committee," he told the Speaker.

But the real issue, Van Loan contended, "is whether MPs will be allowed to study and consider the anti-terrorism bill that is before the House, Bill C-51, or can the opposition, by endless speeches and obstruction, obstruct such a bill and prevent it from ever being studied or passed."

"Let us call it a tyranny of the minority," he suggested.

In response to Julian's point of order, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan reminded the House that committees are, for the most part, masters of their own destiny. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"If you are going to accede to the point of order that has been forwarded by [the NDP], you are essentially going to be ruling that a minority—a single member, perhaps—has the ability to stand through a filibuster, as they have indicated, and block and obstruct legislation from ever passing and from ever being considered," Van Loan warned the speaker.

But as Julian noted in his rebuttal, at no point did Van Loan address the procedural issue at the heart of the dispute: namely, should the committee have been able to overrule the chair to force a vote on a motion deemed inadmissible by the black letter laws of Parliament.

The Speaker — in this case, deputy Joe Comartin, who was sitting in for Scheer on Friday — took the matter under advisement, which means Scheer will have until the House returns next week to consider his ruling.

Ruling could have profound impact

While it may sound like an eye-glazingly technical debate over House mechanics, the decision is one that should be watched closely not just by the New Democrats, but every MP currently ensconced in the government backbenches who plans to run for re-election — particularly those who have never experienced life on the other side of the Chamber.

There is, after all, no guarantee their party will win a second majority, which means they can't count on having the votes to rewrite the committee rulebook on the fly next time around — not without the support of at least one of the other parties.

That could put them right back where they were at the ethics committee in 2008, when the time-honoured art of the filibuster was virtually the only way to stymie an unwelcome motion.

It will also put future chairs — even those from the government side — at the mercy of the committee as a whole.

And someday, this and other precedents set over the last few years may affect a Conservative opposition's power to keep a New Democrat or Liberal government in check.

No matter how unlikely they may believe such a scenario to be, that should make any Conservative MP looking beyond the next 11 weeks of the House sitting think twice about laying down a legacy that could come back to haunt.

James Lunney, a federal Conservative MP, is using his Twitter account to come to the defence of an Ontario Progressive Conservative who told reporters last week that he doesn't believe in evolution.

The British Columbia chiropractor, first elected as a member of Parliament in 2000, has jumped into a fray that started last week in the Ontario Legislature.

Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Rick Nicholls, who represents the province's Chatham-Kent-Essex riding, was heckling the provincial education minister on Wednesday when the matter of human origins came up.

Education Minister Liz Sandals was responding to PC criticism of her government's new sex-education curriculum when she quipped that a PC government "could opt out of teaching about evolution, too."

"Not a bad idea," said Nicholls, who later clarified his position to reporters in the lobby.

"[Just] stop calling #evolution fact!" tweeted Lunney, who said he had no problem calling it a "theory."

Lunney, who represents the federal riding of Nanaimo-Alberni. seemed to be echoing views he expressed in a statement to the House in 2009:

"Any scientist who declares that the theory of evolution is a fact has already abandoned the foundations of science. For science establishes fact through the study of things observable and reproducible. Since origins can neither be reproduced nor observed, they remain the realm of hypothesis," he said then.

"The evolutionist may disagree, but neither can produce Darwin as a witness to prove his point. The evolutionist may genuinely see his ancestor in a monkey, but many modern scientists interpret the same evidence in favour of creation and a Creator."

Also questioned vaccines, climate change

Lunney has also used his Twitter account in the past to question climate change.

Last year he tweeted "Science settled? Think again!" and posted a link to an article by a University of Guelph economist who is one of the signatories of a declaration disputing climate change.

In a 2004 speech in the House of Commons, Lunney cited figures he said showed a tenfold increase in the incidence of autism and said Canada should explore a link to vaccines.

"Why should Canada not be leading the world in actually addressing these issues, finding out if there is a root issue, doing some proper studies and making sure we get appropriate intervention for these children?" he said, according to a statement posted on his website.

Medical research has thoroughly discredited the purported link between vaccines and autism. But a widespread belief in such a link is thought to explain a decline in childhood vaccination that has permitted the resurgence of once-vanquished diseases such as measles.

The federal government is cutting funds for a program designed to prevent the most dangerous, high-risk sex offenders from repeating their crimes, just as its own five-year study has found the program dramatically improves public safety and saves money.

The 18 Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) programs across the country now have about 700 trained volunteers who help safely reintegrate offenders from prison back into the community.

Most sites are now preparing to close after funding from the Correctional Service of Canada ends March 31.

Evaluation found program reduces costs, recidivism

The looming closures come on the heels of a $7.5-million, five-year project by the National Crime Prevention Centre, funded by Public Safety Canada, showing the support program leads to dramatic reduction in repeat sex crimes. The capacity-building and evaluation project also found that for every dollar invested in the program, it saves $4.60.

Susan Love, who runs the program in Ottawa, is baffled by the decision to cut funds just as a study shows it to be successful and cost-effective.

"It's crazy, actually. It's like the left hand isn't talking to the right hand," she told CBC News. "It's like this five-year study that was just done was irrelevant. Why invest the time and the money?"

For the support program in Ottawa, the federal funding was $12,000 a year from an operating budget of about $100,000 — far less than the annual cost of incarcerating one offender, Love notes. But it gave the program credibility to help leverage money from other funding sources, which can be a challenge with the "stigma" of sexual offenders, she said.

The correctional service has provided $650,000 in core funding annually, but half of that will be cut except for a program run by the Mennonite Central Committee with sites in Toronto, Hamilton and Kitchener, Ont., that has three years left on the contract. Those cuts come at the same time the five-year project funding — which had essentially boosted the annual budget to $2.2 million — expires.

Public safety at risk, program operators say

Love said the cuts have left program operators scrambling for alternate funding sources or preparing to close down. They have also launched a letter-writing campaign to Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney warning about consequences of the cutbacks.

"Without the support of COSA, the risk of further victimization will be greater, and public safety will be compromised," it reads.

Studies have shown that recidivism rates are 70 to 83 per cent lower among participants, and the evaluation finds examples of even greater success. One case site study in south Saskatchewan, for example, finds the support program has been "incredibly successful" by lowering reoffending rates by 95 per cent among participants.

The evaluation report found the program to be cost-effective in dollar terms and in reducing the suffering of victims.

"Every dollar invested in COSA to prevent a recidivistic event is worth $4.60 in savings to society in terms of justice system costs, medical costs, loss of productivity and pain and suffering," the report reads.

Andrew McWhinnie, a British Columbia psychologist who contributed to the evaluation, called the decision to cut funds a "mystery" since the program has proven to reduce victimization, a stated priority for the government.

"I would have to say that while the government has made much of its priority for victims and victims' rights, it is in effect, at the same time, backing away from the only non-governmental program in Canada that demonstrably prevents victimization in the first place," he said.

Made in Canada model adopted around the world

He noted that other countries — including the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Australia and New Zealand — have or are in the process of instituting a "made in Canada" model of the support program as an important part of their criminal justice policies.

Funding was earmarked for cuts last year because it was deemed outside of the correctional service's core mandate, but it was extended until the evaluation report was complete.

Because the offenders are released at the end of their sentence on warrant expiry, they will be out in the community whether they participate in the volunteer program or not. Love said it comes down to whether it is better for the public to keep them marginalized and at higher risk to reoffend, or monitored and given tools to lower the risks of reoffending.

"They [government officials] talk very strongly about protecting victims — so why not support COSA? We have the same mission. That is our purpose — to prevent victims."

Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, spokesman for the public safety minister, said funding for the evaluation through the National Crime Prevention Centre allowed for testing various models and data collection, but could not be renewed after the five-year cycle ended.

He did not address the issue of core funding cuts from the correctional service.

"Our government believes that dangerous sex offenders belong behind bars. That is why we have put forward a number of important measures to ensure our streets and communities are safe," he said.

New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair spends a second day touting his party's small business-friendly campaign platform in British Columbia, where he will once again team up with local candidate Rachel Blaney and NDP MLA Nicholas Simons for a mid-morning stop at the Powell River-based Townsite Brewery.

Later this afternoon, Mulcair is slated to make his way to Nanaimo, where he'll join area NDP hopeful Sheila Malcolmson at Arbutus Music before meeting up with two more NDP candidates, Alistair MacGregor and George Johns, for an evening town hall at the Coast Bastion Hotel.

Back on the Hill, Canadian Psychological Association CEO Dr. Karen Cohen outlines the group's opposition to a new plan to "tax mental health care" by making some assessments subject to sales tax.

Elsewhere in the capital, Matters founder and CEO Olivia Dorey kicks off the "Why It Matters" campaign for "clear and accessible budget information" by holding a press conference to explain her "vision and action plan" and unveil the organization's newly redesigned website.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver takes a brief break from balancing the federal books to pay a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum, where he will "take part in" the official unveiling of the medals to be awarded at the 2015 Toronto Pan and Parapan American Games.

Back in Ontario, Minister of State for Science Ed Holder joins local MP Bryan Hayes at Sault College, where the pair will "meet with local stakeholders" and unveil new federal funding for "business innovation" in Northern Ontario.

Moving west to Calgary, Labour and Status of Women Minister Kellie Leitch tours the facilities and chats with staff at the Saffron Centre, which provides counselling services to victims of sexual assault, abuse and sexual violence.

Finally, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification Michelle Rempel drops by the British Columbia Technology Industry Association with fresh federal support earmarked for "trade and investment."

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The House

Steven Blaney discusses radicalization and anti-terrorism legislation Feb. 28, 2015 2:01 PM This week on The House, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney answers some of the key criticisms of the government's anti-terrorism bill. Evan Solomon also puts the controversial legislation under the microscope with Craig Forcese, an associate professor in the University of Ottawa's law faculty.

Later today, he'll make his way west to Powell River, where he'll team up with Powell River area candidates Rachel Blaney and Nicholas Simons at an evening town hall.

Also in British Columbia today: Minister of State for Western Development Michelle Rempel, who will drop by the University of British Columbia to share the details of a new initiative to promote "the development of clean technology in the oil and gas industries" before paying a visit to the Centre for Drug Research and Development to announce new measures to "benefit the development of new approaches to immunotherapy treatments."

Back in the capital, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney will be front and centre at the opening ceremonies for the second annual Summit on the Economics of Policing and Community Safety, which will be closed to media following a round of opening statements from Blaney and his Ontario and Quebec counterparts, Yasir Naqvi and Lise Theriault.

This afternoon, Ottawa Orleans MP Royal Galipeau will attend the "media launch" of the Ottawa Scene Festival at the National Arts Centre.

In her home province of Prince Edward Island, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea drops by the North Rustico Lions Club with a fresh batch of funding, while Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel delivers federal support to the Montreal Saint-Hubert Longueil Airport.

Finally, Treasury Board President Tony Clement heads home to Muskoka with new cash for "jobs, growth and prosperity," while in North Bay, Minister of State for Science Ed Holder and local MP Jay Aspin show their government's support for youth before taking part in a "technology demonstration" at Nipissing University.

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For up to the minute dispatches from the precinct and beyond, keep your eye on the Parliament Hill Ticker:

The Harper government is looking at a whole new game plan for its workforce. Literally.

Senior bureaucrats are examining how so-called "gamification" – encouraging employees and citizens to play games for rewards – can improve motivation, engagement and problem-solving.

Gamification is a hot new concept in the corporate sector, as large firms such as Walmart use computer-based games to train workers at a fraction of the cost of old-style classroom learning. The technique is especially suited to a younger generation of employees with lifelong exposure to regular game-playing, especially on computers.

But the approach has not been widely adopted in the public sector in Canada beyond a few small applications, such as at the Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto.

The Privy Council Office, the central organ of government and the prime minister's own department, now is looking at adopting gamification as it renews the entire federal workforce over the next five years.

An internal memo from the Privy Council Office suggests game-playing by federal workers on the job could improve training and productivity. (Adam Carter/CBC)

"Gamification has the potential to advance public service renewal activities," says an internal memo from last June, obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act.

"Additionally, gamification may be a useful tool in engaging citizens. … Future citizen engagement initiatives undertaken by the public service could possibly make use of its techniques."

The four-page memo, entitled "Harnessing the Power of Gamification," was written by Coleen Volk, deputy secretary to the federal cabinet. Volk proposes that game-playing be promoted by a policy think-tank established by the government in mid-February, called the central innovation hub.

Key lessons embedded

Raymond Rivet, a spokesman for PCO, says the hub is not working on any gamification projects "at the present time," adding: "Gamification is among the techniques that can be used to help achieve stronger policy and program outcomes."

Axonify, a Waterloo, Ont., company specializing in gamification for corporations, sells software that gives employees three minutes of game-playing each day, allowing them to choose from among 20 games that have key lessons embedded in them.

Workers accumulate points for mastering the games, and can exchange points for rewards on an eBay-like auction site, says president and CEO Carol Leaman.

"It uses brain science to get them to remember," she said in an interview. "They solidify neural pathways in the brain."

The technique is far more effective than "firehosing them for hours in a classroom. … It's an entire waste of time to do that."

Axonify's clients, half of whom are retailers, are largely U.S.-based, including Toys "R" Us, General Electric, Bloomingdales, Johnson & Johnson as well as Walmart.

"I do expect government will start to take notice that this is what's going on in the corporate sector. … Governments tend to lag," she said.

Loyalty programs

An expert on gamification, Neil Randall of the University of Waterloo, said he was "a little shocked and excited" to hear that Ottawa is looking into gaming as a workplace motivator.

Randall, co-founder of the university's Games Institute, has developed a game-based system for the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, to encourage children to stick with their rehab program. More recently, he developed a game system for this year's Stratford Festival, to encourage a new generation to become theatre-goers.

Retail loyalty programs, such as Aeroplan, were an early form of gamification as marketing departments seized on the potential to win and keep customers, he says. But developers are looking for the next phase, such as game-based techniques to engage and train workers.

The Privy Council Office has employed more traditional game-playing in the past to motivate its employees.

In September 2011, it held a one-day event called the Amazing PCO Race, where 370 public servants formed 40 teams to collect points for various tasks.

Among the activities: the Gearing Up for Combat challenge, where participants were assigned to dress a member of their team in either full Canadian Forces Arctic gear or combat gear. Winners won a pizza lunch with the clerk of the Privy Council.

The Volk memo says other federal departments, such as Employment and Social Development Canada, have also used gamification techniques in the past.

Journalist Mohamed Fahmy, still facing a retrial in Egypt, said on Sunday he would like to speak directly to someone in the Canadian government to ask for help in securing his deportation from Egypt, something that was arranged for his Australian colleague weeks ago.

The Al-Jazeera English journalist indicated in a CBC interview he finds it difficult to trust media reports that say Egyptian President Abdul Fattah el-Sissi promises to issue a presidential pardon after his retrial ends.

"We have been accustomed to such rhetoric from the Egyptian president," Fahmy said. "He has claimed he would pardon us at least three times in the past year, at the UNGA (UN General Assembly) in November in Davos and several other occasions.

'Emotional roller-coaster'

"The president, I feel, uses that sort of rhetoric to appease some of the diplomatic pressure that's applied on him and to calm down the sort of pressure that's coming from different areas.

"It has really become an emotional roller-coaster, not just for me, but for other journalists in the case, who have heard this kind of rhetoric before," Fahmy said.

Mohamed Fahmy says hearing an Egyptian media report that again raises hopes of a presidential pardon is adding to the 'emotional roller-coaster' of his case. (Derek Stoffel/CBC)

El-Sissi was quoted in an Egyptian newspaper on Saturday as saying he can't interfere to release Fahmy and his Egyptian colleague Baher Mohamad until the final verdict has been handed down.

While legal proceedings continue in Cairo, Fahmy remains out on bail, but must report daily to police. Australian Peter Greste was arrested with the two other Al-Jazeera journalists in December 2013, but was deported from Egypt on Feb. 1, although he, too, was facing a retrial.

Fahmy said he doesn't believe "some of the rhetoric out there" that Canada has not done more to help him because he's a Muslim or has dual citizenship. However, he said "there must be a diplomatic blockage" if one of his colleagues was deported but not him.

'Contact me directly'

Fahmy said the Canadian government has been slow to speak to the right people at the right time and is only now starting to realize "the usual ways of dealing with the Egyptian government have to be changed."

"I do understand the Canadian ambassador in Egypt has met directly, face-to-face, with the Egyptian prosecutor, which we had hoped would have happened earlier in order to extract me from this case," he said.

"I would like somebody from our government to contact me directly," Fahmy said. "I have been contacted by members of the opposition, Justin Trudeau, and others who have been really concerned about my situation. I would like to speak to somebody from the government, our government in Canada, to better understand what is the problem exactly."

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who is working to get Fahmy out of Egypt, also expressed her frustration last week.

She said calls for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to "pick up the phone and personally intervene in the case have so far fallen on deaf ears."

The retrial of the Al-Jazeera journalists, accused of aiding a terrorist organization, resumes March 8.

CBC asked the office of Minister of State (Foreign Affairs and Consular Affairs) Lynne Yelich for a comment about the case and she said the government remains optimistic, and that "Canada continues to call for the immediate and full release of Mohamed Fahmy."

"Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has spoken of his consideration of a general amnesty to advance a humanity built on compassion and peace. We encourage President el-Sisi to immediately resolve Mr. Fahmy's case," the minister said in a statement.

Yelich also said, "Canada advocates for the same treatment of Fahmy as other foreign nationals have received."

The self-described outsider in the race to become leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservatives claimed first place in all-important membership sales after Saturday's cut off deadline.

Barrie MP Patrick Brown, the only one of the three candidates not to have a seat in the legislature, said he sold 40,410 new PC memberships, a figure confirmed by a party source speaking on background because no official tallies had been completed from the "bulk submissions" from each campaign.

"I am humbled by the support of the tens of thousands of Ontarians who bought a membership from our campaign," Brown said in a release.

London-area MPP Monte McNaughton's campaign said it sold "a little less than 20,000" new memberships, but the source put the figure at closer to 6,000.

Deputy PC leader Christine Elliott did not report any sales figures in a statement issued after the period for signing up new members ended, but the party source estimated her sales at 13,000.

Elliott said final numbers that eventually will come from PC headquarters will show she has "widespread support" across the province.

"I am confident the final numbers to be released by the party in coming days will reflect the momentum my campaign has built so far," she said.

The party may not release official results — and a preliminary voters' list — for more than a month.

Every PC member will be eligible to vote for the new leader in May, so candidates tried to sell as many $10 memberships as possible. People as young as 14 were eligible to become PC members.

The voting will be weighted so each of the province's 107 ridings gets 100 points in total, so where the memberships were sold can be just as important as how many.

The Tories had about 100,000 members in the early 2000s, but were down to just 10,000 when they lost their fourth consecutive election last June. Adding in all the bulk submissions, existing members and people who sign up directly on line, the Tories estimate they have 70,000 members.

"That reverses a trend from two previous leadership races when the number of members fell," said the source.

"Neutral" officials were reviewing the memberships reported by each campaign to ensure all required information is in place and that duplications are eliminated, and the preliminary voters' list will be released by April 3, said PC party president Richard Ciano in a statement.

Elliott, who placed third in the 2009 leadership race won by Tim Hudak, was way ahead in fundraising, reporting $620,000 in donations as of Friday, compared with $197,000 for Brown, while McNaughton was a distant third with only $77,000 reported to Elections Ontario.

Hudak resigned shortly after last year's election defeat, the second under his stewardship, when the Liberals were returned with a majority government.

PC party members across the province will vote for the new leader on May 3 and 7, using preferential ballots, with the results to be announced at a convention in Toronto on May 9.

Canada stands with the tens of thousands of Russians who took to Moscow streets on Sunday to protest the killing of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson says.

Speaking on the eve of his first foreign trip in his new portfolio, Nicholson said Sunday he doesn't know who is to blame for Friday's shooting of Nemtsov, one of the most vocal political opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

But Sunday's protest march and outpouring of support for Nemtsov shows Russians are concerned about what Putin is doing to their country, he said.

"I understand and support those who are taking to the street," the minister told The Canadian Press in his first print interview since replacing John Baird last month.

"They saw progress after the end of communism, and now I'm sure that many of them are very worried about what Putin is doing."

Minister to discuss Ukraine with French counterpart

Along with the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, the ongoing tension in Ukraine tops the agenda when Nicholson arrives in Paris on Monday for talks with his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius.

Nicholson said he's looking forward to a first-hand analysis from Fabius of the Minsk II peace agreement that France recently took part in with Germany, Russia and Ukraine.

The agreement calls for the withdrawal of all armed forces from Ukraine, a clause many see as aimed at Russia, which is accused of backing separatists there.

Nicholson acknowledged the fragility of the ceasefire, which was shaken Friday by the deaths of three Ukrainian soldiers.

"Certainly with the killing of Boris Nemtsov here in the last couple of days underlines how difficult and how tragic the circumstances are," said Nicholson.

"I'm interested to get his (Fabius's) take on this."

Before he was gunned down, Nemtsov had organized Sunday's demonstration in Moscow as a peace march against the war in Ukraine.

Nemtsov was shot to death near the Kremlin just hours after he gave a radio interview during which he accused Putin of a "mad, aggressive and deadly policy" in the war against Ukraine.

He was working on a report that was trying to link Russian soldiers with the Ukraine separatist fighters.

Under drizzly skies, marchers chanted "Russia without Putin" and "Say no to war," the Associated Press reported.

Nemstov's death 'very much a tragedy': Nicholson

"I'm hoping that a thorough investigation will uncover exactly who is behind this," Nicholson said.

"He was a tireless advocate of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. He was unafraid to speak his mind. This is very much a tragedy," the minister added.

"This is a setback, of course, for people who want to see the rule of law and democracy come to Russia."

Several dozen people gathered on the steps of Vancouver's art gallery, carrying Ukraine flags or signs branding Putin a "killer."

A large bouquet of flowers and a lit candle lay in front of a framed photo of Nemtsov. There was also a march in Toronto with demonstrators taking to downtown streets.

Also on Monday, Nicholson will visit the Grand Synagogue of Paris as a deliberate statement against anti-Semitism.

The gesture comes following the January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket in France, and last week's shootings of two people in Denmark — including a Jewish man outside a synagogue.

"We are strong supporters of religious freedom and we'll continue to stand up for religious minorities who are under threat and we will advocate on their behalf," he said.

Nicholson also welcomed Sunday's release of 19 Christian Assyrians, who were among the 220 people taken captive last week by Islamic militants in northern Syria.

Ukraine, anti-terror fight top priorities

He called that "a step in the right direction but we want to see more."

Nicholson moved over from the defence portfolio in a mini cabinet shuffle after Baird's sudden departure after almost four years at foreign affairs.

Baird had been the longest serving minister at that post in the Harper government.

Nicholson said the ongoing fight against terrorism and the continuing need to support Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression would be his top priorities in the months ahead before an expected October federal election.

"I had those issues as defence minister and that will certainly continue as foreign affairs minister."

Nicholson's appointment sparked criticism because he is not bilingual.

The minister said he chose France as his first trip as Canada's top diplomat because the two countries "have been bound together" by their "cultural roots, our rich history, and our shared values."